Main menu

Category Archives: Awareness

Post navigation

Today did not start out well at all. I hadn’t bought enough of the things I knew I’d want to eat, my eldest seems to LOVE my cucumber slices… and I woke up hungry, with the wonderfully delicious smell of … Continue reading →

YAY!!!! I feel wonderful. It’s just that simple, I. feel. wonderful. The simple words, 10 Day Transformation, are the cause of this. Purium is the cause of this. I feel amazing. I know it’s only day 3, I still have … Continue reading →

to a “Healthier Me”. Today is the 24 of July and I started my ’10-Day Celebrity Transformation’. I decided, after looking up a lot of things and reading many more items, that this is probably my one shot to being … Continue reading →

“With most health conditions, there is variance in a treatment plan based on the unique conditions of one’s illness. For example, we know there are 14 types of breast cancer, and each may have a very different course of treatment. But with obesity, it’s one size fits all: Eat less. Exercise more. Repeat.

This has been apparent to me for a very long time. Just seeing the different people in my family that either worked on toning their body, keeping in shape, loosing a little weight, or trying to loose a lot of weight made this idea completely transparent to me. The things that worked for one or more did not work for all.

Eating less and working out more actually caused me to gain more weight, counting calories turned me into a zombie with no energy. Diet pills were not good for me either, the PA at my local clinic was a life saver there. And yet the doctors continued to state the same rhetoric over and over, “Eat less and exercise more”. My body chemistry wasn’t working with that and it wasn’t until I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism that I started to loose weight and keep it off for a few years.
I truly hope that this continues to be a continuous debate within the medical world, as well as the weight-loss world.

Blessings and Warm Wishes to All,
~Ya-ya~ ❤

(Please read Amy Capetta’s article to learn more about the different categories.)

Recently I came across an old article, Courts Kill Student Rights – Jonathan Turley, USA Today , that truly upset me.
It seems to me as though the courts are truly attempting to overlook all of our rights, starting in school. That wonderful place that molds and shapes the future of our nation. What happens to the fate of our great nation when the ones that vote the leaders into their places of power are taught that it doesn’t matter that you’re in the United States, and that the symbols of our nation don’t matter because it might offend other citizens on another country’s celebratory days? When the courts that are supposed to uphold our rights as granted us in the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution decide that we really don’t have the “Freedom of Speech”?

How can the Courts, all-be-it two different courts, rule that wearing an armband that symbolizes your opposition and protest of the Vietnam War in 1969, Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District, is a freedom granted to us under the 1st Amendment and then in 2014 the Federal appellate court in California rule that wearing clothing with the ‘Stars and Stripes’ on it is incendiary and disrespectful. The US Supreme Court quietly declined to hear the case concerning the Live Oak High School students.

On May 5th, 2010 the Live Oak High School’s principal had the children that wore the American flag shirts, turn their shirts inside out and those that failed to do so were sent home, for wearing this clothing at an American school. It shouldn’t matter if the school is helping the kids learn about another culture by celebrating Cinco de Mayo, or Chinese New Year, or any other holiday that is associated with a specific country.
Our country is supposed to be presented first within our country’s borders, therefore our flag flies above all other flags, within our country. Pride for our country should be cherished and nurtured, and yet pride in and for our country is on a fast-paced down-slide, an avalanche of sorts. When you feel pride and wish to show it, in whatever way, your considered an activist of sorts, or worse, and it’s basically being taught at grade level now, to “be more worried about what others will think and possibly find fault with then about what is right.”

A lot of people do for various reasons. There are many things to fear in life, spiders is at the top of my list, but one constant for everyone seems to be death. Either of dying it’s self or something that leads up to death.
Personally, I’m not afraid to die. I faced that possibility at 16 and dealt with it then. I am scared of loosing those that I love, though. So that would be my “fear of death”. It’s something that I can not change, nor do I have dominion over when it will happen. Since I am driven by emotions I do not see this fear leaving anytime soon. Therefore, I’m just going to have to continue to fear it, and find someway to handle it as best I can.
A very wonderful friend of mine wrote a blog post, “Facing Death Facing Life“, concerning this topic. I recommend reading this, and others that she has written. It puts her fear of death into a light that many of us can understand, and find a way to accept our own fear.

Considering the “recent” issues concerning the Bundy ranch located in Bunkerville, NV it seems that we are seeing, quit publicly even if the local news seems to not want to cover it, just how far they are willing to go to take land for a reason that we can not see at the moment.
It is concerning because this is just a step farther in taking away our rights and access to public lands. There are correlations between other stand-offs between citizens/groups and the federal government that greatly concern me, ie. snipers.
The lively hood of this family is being threatened and taken away. While I do agree that the family should pay the money to graze the cattle I do not believe the BLM, Burial of Land Management, has the right to take their cattle and restrict access to the land like they are, nor employ goons to assault people.

I know the treatment of the Veterans that fight for the country and have been in war are treated horribly in Nevada. Just journey down the I-15 and into California and you would receive better treatment as a Vet, unfortunately unless your willing to pay the expenses yourself it isn’t affordable to most of them and they, therefore, must accept the free treatment from the VA Clinics in Nevada. I’m off-topic now but what I was attempting to point out is that, in Nevada, it seems that no-one gets a fair shake.

There are so many things I could comment on and give my view-point but I’ll try and stick to this. The claim has been made that they are removing the cattle to save the desert tortoise. This has been proven to be a wrong move time and time again. The BLM has had to euthanize a few tortoises because they CAN NOT manage them. The removal of cattle from the area where the tortoise lives is a horrible idea, unless you want to kill the tortoise off and have ulterior motives. The cattle and tortoises are connected in a food web. The tortoise is dependent upon the cattle, esp in times of drought as they will eat the droppings from the cattle for moisture. They are also dependent upon the cattle as the rancher will haul water out to them when needed and supply feed as needed, which the tortoise takes advantage of. When these things are taken away, what is left for the tortoise? Nothing, and then it dies. This is not management of the tortoise, to kill them off, this is greed over the cattle and rancher by the BLM.

I can not say more on this, except to say that I hope eyes are being opened and that people with make their voices heard.

So here’s my thoughts on “fear”. Fear is a very very powerful tool; it can cripple you or drive you forward. People often say we have nothing to fear but fear it’s self. ” Only thing we have to Fear … Continue reading →

Today is Sunday, and while many go to church regularly or practice their own form of devotional and spiritualism today ( and many practice all week-long) I have not been doing this, and for this I am saddened. I … Continue reading →

Due to recent events that have happened and conversations with people close to me I’ve decided to write this post in hopes that it may help others who have suffered similar sexual assaults. I, myself, am a victim as well as many of my close friends and others close to us. It seems that most females I know, and a couple of males as well, are victims of some sort of sexual abuse and/or assault and that, my dears, greatly disturbs me. How can this be? How can this happen to so many and yet, it seems, there be so little assistance from those who are sworn to protect us to keep it from happening again and to our children?

The title of my post is “Little Red Riding Hood Speaks Out” for a reason. I’ve always seemed to find the story of the young girl dark and not as merry as many have tried to write it for children’s books and stories. To me it has been more than just a lesson of never speaking to strangers but the wolf took on a more “predatory” feeling. It rings of sexual assault and abuse to me. (For a brief psychoanalytical break down look here: Psychoanalytic Approach to Little Red Riding Hood )

There are also songs written with that exact feeling put into the lyrics, such a song is “Li’l Red Riding Hood”. This song has many, many videos, and remakes by other artists, made by YouTube uses and they all portray the same sort of pictures with the skimpy, helpless, heavy lidded and occasional dark eyed helpless female that is being overpowered by the evil wolf. There are occasional pictures used as well where the woman is scantily clad in charge but, as I said, it is occasional. The running theme is that the woman is helpless and the wolf, as the predator, is in the power and she is his sexually attractive prey to be taken at will. A quote from Wikipedia, upon doing a search on the song, states:

” The song is built around Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood“, adapted by ending before the grandmother makes her entrance, and explicitly using the ambiguity of modern English between “wolf”, the carnivore, and “wolf”, a man with concealed sexual intentions. The effect, whether intentional or incidental, is to strip away the fairy tale’s metaphorical device and present the relationship between the two characters without literary pretense.

The singer remarks on “what big eyes” and “what full lips” Red has, and eventually on “what a big heart” he himself has. An added element is that he says (presumably aside, to the song’s audience) that he is disguised in a “sheep suit” until he can demonstrate his good intentions, but he seems to be having a hard time suppressing his wolf call in the form of a howl, in favor of the baa-ing of a sheep, at the very end of the song when Sam repeats the word “BAAHED” a few times during the song’s fade. One of its signature lines is “you’re ev’rything that a big bad wolf could want”. “

(See the song by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs released in 1966: )

There are many cartoons as well that portray “little Red” as a sexually attractive woman, think Jessica Rabbit, that is irresistible to the wolf. In one such cartoon the wolf is a dressed up high-roller that at first can’t take no for an answer, then becomes the chased instead of the chaser. While this cartoon is funny in its slap stick humor, common in the 40’s with helpless women and such, it still portrays the view that men, at nature, are wolves and females, by virtue, are to be taken and enjoyed. Fortunately, this wolf gets a taste of what’s it like to say “NO” but have someone not listen. Unfortunately he doesn’t learn his lesson about being a gentleman. (See video here: )

In any effect “Little Red” is clearly recognized by everyone as the victim of the “Wolf” ‘s lust and desire whether she is young or old. In the original tale, I believe, the red of her clothing is the representation of her innocence and hymen or lost blood upon first coupling and the young girl is the representation of her innocence before womanhood which is about to be stolen/taken by the wolf which is the representation of a man’s lust, desire, and predatory nature. So if this is a “no-brainer” why is it that the laws on sexual assault, abuse, rape and molestation so puny? Why is there a dead line for charges to be filed and dealt with and why is there a maximum for when people who are charged with these heinous crimes allowed to be set free again, and in most cases, commit those crimes again? Perhaps there is a reason that most of these crimes are never reported and therefore the criminal is free to continue committing these crimes and, if caught, never fully be tried or convicted of them.

I am a victim, as I stated above. I was sexually assaulted as a child and due to my age, 3-4, it was listed as molestation instead of rape. My youth protected me, in a way, as my young mind could not fully grasp what happened and therefor I only have fragmented memories instead of a full recap of events to live with, as many others do. I can remember the garage that it took place in most often and the beginning of the assault, naked and the smell of ky jelly in some memories, but not the physical act. I am grateful that I don’t recall all of it. I can recall the floor of a truck, wearing no panties, and voices of people I could trust, and knowing if I just spoke up that it would stop for good and never happen again… but scared to death to do so because I didn’t want people I loved to be hurt. I live in regret for not being able to speak up now and blame myself for that even though I know I shouldn’t.

As I grew up I was fearful of male teachers in grade-school, in middle-school and high-school I was fearful of male students my age and older and could not be close to them without having that flight or fight reaction kick in. The only males I felt safe and secure around were some family members and some males that I’d grown up with, 2 that I can think of, that for some reason I’ve never found frightening or threatening as they projected a protective demeanor.

Most of my childhood and teen years I lived in terror of something like that happening again to me or someone that I loved and I had nightmares the entire month after the person whom committed this act against me died when I was younger. Now I live in terror that this will happen to my children and I will be unable to protect them from it. I live in fear that they will become victims and be threatened, as I was, not to speak or tell anyone or something bad will happen. I worry constantly that if this crime occurred that proper and protective measures will NOT happen to ensure the safety of not only my children but others in the community before the tragedy happened again.

They say time heals all wounds and I’m sure in some cases there are victims this applies to, but for me there are still the occasional nightmares brought on from a show I’ve watched that struck to close to home; a calling for jury duty that leaves my stomach in knots and a feeling of nausea that stays with me for a week or more because just the recap of what we’d be hearing caused the reaction. ( I’ve always had to be excused as a juror from such trials.) I will forever live with this just a murder victim’s family will forever live with the absence of their loved one. This type of crime, however, has no happy memories to fall back on in times of sadness & sorrow. This is not a crime that can be set right by an apology or money. (Although money can make a dent in the bill that will occur by the parent getting help for their child or the victim, themselves, seeing a Dr. ) This type of crime forever changes someone’s life and has a lifelong repercussion, not just for the victim but for their family and the ability to be close with someone else intimately, as well as causing issues with their ability to trust their partner. I have found all this to be true with myself as well as with everyone else I know whom has been a victim of such attacks, at any age and of either gender.

This “Little Red” is speaking out. The laws need to change and become harsher. People need to become more aware and stop this. NO woman, man, teen or child should have to live in fear or terror of this happening to them or their children. Please share and pass this along as well as sharing your own experiences if you feel able to do so. I know it’s not easy to do and, for me, requires time to recoup afterwards but, if you’re able to, it is helpful to not just those who have been through it, but to those who do not understand. It’s time for all “Little Red Riding Hood’s” to speak out.